Daughter starting preschool with a cochlear implant

[mummydaddyandme]

Hi,
Its my first time posting on here but I need some advice.
I am a mummy to a just turned 3yo little girl who was born completely deaf. She had no hearing in either ears for the first 2 and a half years of her life. Back in April when she was just over 2 1/5 she had surgery to fit a cochlear implant in each ear. Since then her listening and speech has come on well and she is started to use some words although they are very unclear. She isn’t understood by anyone other than me and DH, although my mum is starting to understand some of her speech.
Anyway, me and DH both want her to experience a year of preschool before she starts school for all the normal reasons: socialisation, confidence, independence etc.
However we are aware that as she isn’t understood yet the teachers might find it difficult to accept her needs. She does have some BSL and she can lip read to some extent. She is very good at communicating without words.
We wanted her to go to mainstream preschool as she has no other concerns and loves other kids. She’s great in social situations and very confident so I think she’ll love it!
Would you put her into preschool and hope she thrives and it brings her speech on or do you think we should wait until January when she’s more confident in speaking?
TIA xx

I would put her in earlier rather than later - lots of little ones will not have clear speech so she won't stand out from her peers significantly. It will also allow her more time to settle and get used to her implants in a more crowded and noisy environment

I would put her into preschool. I don't know about school based preschool but my sons nursery teaches sign language and we have done BSL with him since he was 12 weeks old as we did baby signing and kept building on it (he's not deaf it helped massively before he could talk).

Children are very accommodating once they are aware they just want to play.

Contact your lea for the hearing impaired service who can go into nursery qnd sdvise teaChers etc

www.ndcs.org.uk/information-and-support/first-diagnosis/people-you-may-meet/education-services/

Whereabouts are you OP? I don't know if this is helpful but my sister has two cochlear implanted children. They found the specialist deaf pre-school absolutely invaluable as preparation for mainstream school, as the mainstream ones just didn't have time in that year to bring them fully up to speed for reception. She says it was the single most valuable thing she did, aside from the surgery itself. Could you consider one? They went to one in the South East but I believe they do have other branches.

Not answering your question but as summer born she is entitled to do two years of nursery school and start school the following year. You will need to check with your school that she could then start reception when she does start school.

Has she got an EHCP? Please apply for one for her as soon as you can if not. IPSEA have a great website and guide to applying for one.
An EHCP will allow you to specify that she needs a BSL trained TA (preferably a 1:1) throughout her school years and that will allow her to fully access the mainstream curriculum and reach her potential. An EHCP is something that you can and should apply for yourselves rather than waiting for school to do so.

You should be getting some after-implantation support from the CI team (including their SALTs) and the advisory teacher of the deafs in your area. They can go in and support the preschool staff with advise of how to tackle issues.

She's not the first child to start preschool with unintelligible speech - DD2 had minimal intelligible speech to me (different reasons) as her mum when she started reception age - school staff tuned into her speech pretty quickly, as did the other kids and she's a right argumentative gobshite now.

Hi thanks for the responses so far. We did consider a specialist deaf preschool but the nearest one is a 2 and half hour drive from us and I feel as though that’s a lot of driving in one day. Yes she was born in August so will be the youngest in her year when she starts school which means we could defer her for another year but as she’s so ready in other areas we feel this may hold her back more, long term. One of the teachers in the preschool we’re considering can do basic BSL so that’s a reassurance.

@CoffeeWithCheese No she doesn’t have an EHCP as she’s never been in a setting like this before. I will have a look at this as it sounds like a good idea and it could help her massively. Thank you xx

Yes, put her in, and do a parental request for an ehc needs assessment. My daughter (with cochlear implants) did really well at preschool nursery. She had an ehcp set up for when she started, and it’s a very inclusive mainstream school (that she’s still at now, going into year 2). She had a full time 1:1 TA, and 3 hours of ToD time per week, and she came on really well. Would definitely recommend, the right setting and the right support is very important though! Good luck x

I say this as a teacher :

I would 100 be getting an EHCP in place asap as it will be invaluable. They basically allow children with extra needs to have funding for any additional things they need. I have a relative with a child who has a sight impairment and won't go for an EHCP because her DS is academically capable. He really is but with his disability he is entitled to extra support whatever that may be. It would possibly allow your daughter to have funding for a TA to sign for her, BSL lessons for key staff members... All sorts. Ask the pre school and get applying for sure.

I would also strongly suggest you consider deferring her. I would argue that the majority of August born children would benefit from an extra year of pre school. It doesn't mean they don't do well, or that they don't cope but many would do better with that extra year under their belt. For any child with any sort of disability, speech delay, hearing loss etc who is also a summer born I really would encourage you to think about deferring. Reading and spelling will be harder for her until she is really familiar with how sounds sound etc. There is no way, in my professional opinion that an extra year at nursery would be detrimental. I don't think it would be to the detriment of any child to be honest! I think v few children are ready for school before 5.

However in reference to your original question, yes start her at pre school. I am sure she will thrive and you will be incredibly proud of all the progress she will make ❤️

My daughter was also born completely deaf and received cochlear implants shortly before her third birthday. We too were in a conundrum about whether to send her to preschool for exactly the same reasons as you. However, her teacher of the deaf strongly advised us to go for it, saying her speech and language would come on leaps and bounds being around other children. Does your daughter have a teacher of the deaf and if so, what do they advise?

Even if staff can't understand her verbally at first they will be equipped to deal with this. There will likely be children with English as a second language or those who are non-verbal because they're autistic. My daughter's teacher of the deaf also visits her preschool 3 times per week to work 1-2-1 with her and to advise staff on how best to support her.

My daughter is now 4 and starts school in September. Her progress is better than we ever could have hoped for. We have zero regrets.

Like another poster said, apply for an EHCP asap as the process from initial application to it being a legally binding document takes around 6 months. Ours has proven invaluable.

100% on the EHCP as soon as possible, and make sure you have meeting(s) with the SENCO and make absolutely sure they know what they're doing. A good SENCO will make such an enormous difference. (if you happen to be in north Hampshire/south Surrey I can recommend a place)

I think it would be brilliant for her to be around kids. Having taught EAL kids, being thrown in at the deep end always seemed to work best.

If she did really struggle you could try a pecs book or similar system, but I wouldn't start with that because she will become dependent on in and not make the effort to speak.